Crane Safety
It is encouraging to see that the bigger players in the industry have started placing significant importance on the safety aspect of the shop floor. However, smaller companies are still basing their decision on pricing rather than safety features. In the future, though, even the smaller companies are expected to eventually turn around and see the natural benefits of putting safety first during operations. Equipment India finds out the views on crane safety from major OEMs.

There has been greater emphasis towards safety of equipment, operators and workers, and many top corporate customers give due importance to safety aspects and spend more for added safety features. Interestingly, for such a customer base, safety works as one of the best selling points. But still there is scope for improvement in the safety standards with the drafting and implementing of safety norms by relevant government agencies. Major players in the industry not only give due importance to design factors, but have also come up with lot of extra safety features such as load limiters, mechanical and electrical interlocks, anti-sway systems, and auto-shut down which can enhance safe operations on the shop floor.

Many countries adhere to major safety methods. For example, in China, every crane manufacturer needs to be registered with a government regulatory authority before being able to sell any hoisting equipment. Japan also follows the same for selling any equipment having a SWL more than 3MT. These companies are then subjected to regular audits and their products need to be type certified before being sold. In India, there is a set of design standards under the IS. Several crane manufacturers, especially in the unorganised sector, claim that their cranes confirm of the requirements of the IS; however, if one scratches beneath the surface, a lot of discrepancies can be found. These discrepancies are the reason for price reduction at the cost of sacrificing safety, according to Tushar Mehendale, Managing Director, Electromech.

Says Suhas Baxi, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Demag India, ?The safety norms are designed to ensure equipment, operator and environment safety. The challenge actually is in the interpretation and implementation of these norms and their translation into safe working practices. We at Demag take this challenge and meet it as our primary responsibility. So, our approach is training of operators and engineers on various safety features, safe operating practices and instituting a preventive maintenance regime that ensures safety is.?

?Safety is very important and it should not be neglected. Yes, we have seen many cases where customers are focusing more on safety aspects and are willing to add more safety features and to pay more price for that. Particularly in critical applications in steel plants, power plants, automobile industries and heavy engineering industries safety plays a major role in the customer?s buying decision. A small accident and consequent downtime of crane can lead to huge losses to customers resulting in low profits. So in fact, safety plays a very important role in overall profitability of businesses,? says Saeesh Nevrekar, Deputy Country Manager, Konecranes.

?The safety norms for cranes in India are very weak. There is no norm that makes the fitment of safe load indicators mandatory on cranes. We need to formalise safety norms for all material handling equipment to guarantee safety in operations and protection of lives. Mobile cranes used for material handling are prone to accidents that could happen because of accidental and intentional over loading. Accidental over loading of cranes happens because the crane operator has no aid in-terms of instrumentation on crane parameters and safety margins. The crane operator is all the time guessing loads and distances. It is very important that safety norms for cranes when formalised should define the safety devices that should be fitted to mobile cranes,? says Khalid Aziz, Vice President Corporate, Wylie Indicators.

According to Mehul Patel, Managing Director, Anupam Industries, there is scope for improvement in safety standards, with the drafting and implementing of safety norms by relevant government agencies. USA and Europe follow the best practices in terms of safety standards. Fortunately, the top corporate customers give due importance to safety aspects and spend more for added safety features, and for such a customer base, safety works as one of the best selling points. He says, ?We seriously emphasise the safety aspects of each crane. Our ladle cranes for the steel industry, which are very critical in nature from the safety point of view, are equipped with a lot of safety features. We provide complete redundancy for all mechanical and electrical parts and ensure that any breakdown due to operator error does not lead to any accident. Similarly, our tower cranes are equipped with added safety features like limit switch for all motions, overload limit switch, torque limiter, wind speed sensor, lightening arrestors, etc. All these safety features ensure accident-free operation.?

?We at Spartan believe in highest standards of quality and reliability. We take efforts to be consistent in design to make it sturdy with high performance. We do not compromise on any safety parameter, thereby building trust in our customers. The benchmark for safety has always been to follow and meet the European standards whiles we manufacturing the tower crane,? Vikram Mehta, Managing Director, Spartan India.

Mehendale adds, ?At ElectroMech, we ensure that our products run safely and accident possibilities are minimised. Our cranes are designed and manufactured, confirming to, and in many cases, exceeding the requirements of the design standards. But design factors of safety are not enough. We also provide a lot of extra safety features which can enhance safe operations on the shop floor. Some examples include load limiters to prevent overloading of the crane, mechanical and electrical interlocks for motion control, smooth start-smooth stop systems, anti-sway systems to prevent load swinging, auto shut down of the crane in case of unacceptable supply conditions, safe working platforms to facilitate maintenance."

Says Saeesh, ?Our Smart Cranes comes with many unique features which ensure the overall safety of a crane, like the sway control feature which helps to reduce accidents by preventing load sway and keeps the load steady even if an inexperienced operator is handling the crane. The Adjustable Working Limit feature defines the area in which crane is allowed to move, so the operation of crane can be restricted to a particular area of plant.?

Subhmoy Ghosh, Managing Director, Palfinger India, had this to say, ?Safety comes first at Palfinger. Palfinger truck loader cranes are built with the highest safety standards with safety features specially designed keeping the workers? safety in mind. Palfinger truck loader cranes have set a very high standard in terms of product quality, technology used, confirming operational / environmental safety and strong after service, which is difficult to match by the conventional pick-n-carry cranes.?

To ensure stability, a crane and truck combination is selected through a computer-aided system known as PACWIN. Thorough engineering calculations are done for each and every case. ?We give due weightage to operators? training as well. We have a team of experienced and specialised team of trainers who gives thorough training to the customer?s operators before handing over the crane to them,? says Ghosh.

Mehendale further adds, ?As far as achievement norms and recognitions are concerned, our factory and welding process have received the approval of welding certificate from leading classification society Germanischer Lloyd (GL), Hamburg, Germany. This was instrumental for our contract with Cargotec, our client in shipping industry. The company is also ISO 9001:2008 certified, with UKAS accreditation. We are now in the process of putting our systems in place for the Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) and Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) certificates. Apart from this, through our services subsidiary Cranedge, we also ensure proper preventive maintenance and take care of the crane during its service life. Through Cranedge, we ensure that all the safety systems are maintained and working properly. Brake settings are checked, proper lubrication is ensured, loose connections and fastenings are rectified, hooks are checked, wire rope condition is monitored, etc. These activities help ensure that the crane is running safely and performing the required duties. It addition to providing crane servicing characteristics such as spares support, repairs, services and overhauling, crane health checks, it also provides various other aspects such as modifications and retrofits, relocation of cranes, annual maintenance contracts, crane safety certification, etc. A dedicated team of well-trained and skilled engineers and technicians are available to take care of the same.?

Even though the demand for cranes has not been very positive in the last one year due to delays in project finalisation in power, steel, construction and other key sectors, the industry feels that this scenario will change soon as the government takes the necessary step to curb inflation and release funds to activate various projects.

Saeesh says, ?Crane safety is most important for aspect in complex manufacturing set-ups like steel, power, automobile plants and if the crane stops working, it will entail a huge loss to the company. We have been receiving a very positive response to our advanced cranes with more safety features and customers are willing to pay a premium price for it. The situation will surely improve in future and customers will give more attention to safety features and will pay a higher price for the same. However, there is a small market too, where customers do not wish to pay a premium price for advanced safety features.?

Khalid sums it up, ?In India very few crane users are ready to pay a premium for crane safety. However, such crane owners are forced to install crane safety devices on their cranes when their equipment is hired for DMRC sites or for large PSU projects. Even in such cases crane owners try and cut corners by installing a safety device that partially covers the safety requirements. It is very important to note here that the DMRC has come out with some guidelines on the safety devices that are to be fitted on cranes deployed on their project sites. We only hope that the implementation of these guidelines is done properly.?